This past two seasons ive hunted my Godfathers 100 acre farm extremely hard. Probably close to 60 days total in the stands. This past year was especially hard. There are alot of big bucks in the area but nothing had materialized until November 12th.
It was really warm and being that the next day was opening day of shotgun (which is equivalent to a major holiday on the farm) i decided not to go too deep in the woods so i just sat down in thick cover at the edge of a field adjacent to some big woods.
It was a last minute decision as far as sitting on the ground went and at first i thought it was a bad idea. i had literally 2 shooting lanes with one of them being an 8 yard shot behind me into the timber line and the other an opening into the hay/alfalfa field.
From the minute a sat down i heard bucks runnin does in the woods and behind me, i just couldnt see a thing due to me being so low in thick brush. For about 30 min i heard a big buck grunting and running around.....constant chills down my back.
i decided to move 3 yards or so deeper into the tree line in case he came into the field. the sound of my breaking some twigs must of brought him out of the timber to check it out because before i knew it he was standing in the weeds against the timber about 75 yards away.
Wouldnt you know it my phone starts vibrating. It was my work and since i was "on call" i had to answer. I whispered to my manager that i was hunting and i couldnt come in. She was pissed so i turned off my phone. lol.
The buck just stood there then without warning sprinted over to me at about 12 yards. He stopped in my previousl shooting lane that i had before i had retreated a little more into the trees. He slowly walked along the edge, maintaining his 12 yard distance and when he hit my new lane i rasised my bow, grunted, and let go. I saw him return to the woods with over half my arrow in him.
To finish my story (sorry its so long), we gave him about 2 hours and fit the blood trail. We trailed good blood for 100 yards or so and found my arrow soaked about 3/4 way up with blood. For the next 4 hours we tracked spots of blood for about 600 yards up a hill. we gave up at almost midnight being that we were in someone elses woods and didnt want to intrude on their gun opener. With opnening gun weekend in full swing i was never able to look anymore. i was so sick.
after further review we all dtermined that i hit him in the shoulder and it glanced up through the shoulder muscle. There is no was a deer could go over half a mile if it was hit in the lungs, especially up a decently steep hill.
note to self: MAKE SURE TO PICK A SPOT
the deer was a 10pt that would conservatively go between 120-130 making him the biggest deer id ever shot at.
sorry for the novel but i had some time and was feeling like writing
-John
Topic: If you could redo one shot which one would it be? (Read 1454 times)
